Saturday, December 6, 2008

Name Draft Runners Just About Finished

Yesterday I woke up to our first real snowfall which turned to ice rain in the afternoon. I have two of these little ornament trees bracketing my front door and I think the touch of snow looks lovely on them. Later on in the day I had to peel the ice coating off of the sage leaves I picked to season dinner, so the weather rapidly deteriorated!
I’m on the home run with the Overshot Name draft runners and have woven them with different wefts from the first 2/20 wool sample. The second sample was woven with 2/10 silk noil in a soft olive green colour which I doubled on the pirn. This photo doesn’t do the colours justice and I’m going to try and learn Photoshop better.

The final runner has a weft of 2/10 tussah silk, doubled, that was originally a dull dun colour. I over dyed it with crimson and came up with a lovely redwood colour. There are very subtle variations in the colour which make it interesting. There is a very nice play with sheen too as the warp has quite a bit of lustre and the silk has none. This is the only one of the three runners that is truly woven to square, so it will be my submission piece to the GCW.

Because this warp is of very sticky Egyptian cotton threads I’ve kept the lease sticks in place to ensure that there is some separation before the warp hits the heddles, to prevent bridging. Lily Louet has little eye hooks just over the back beam where it is suggested you tie up your lease sticks when weaving so that they don’t impede the shed.
I decided to leave them in front of the back beam and I still have what I consider a very ample shed, much larger than any I’ve achieved on my wee Minerva loom.

If you noticed the pillow on the ledge behind the loom, here is a better photo. This cushion was given to me by my friend Susan and celebrates our joint Spring Looms.

On of the things I forgot to mention on a previous post, is that when you are not weaving with all of the shafts on the loom, you should pin the extra shafts into the neutral position with the neat pick that Louet provides. It is so much easier than my previous countermarche loom, just thread the texsolv cord onto the pick and insert into the hole in the castle.

4 comments:

Brenda said...

I almost called you for that cup of tea yesterday, but the weather scared me off! I had a lunch meeting with friends up on Wilson Jackson Road. That was fun coming down in the rain, so kept on moving west right to Falkland. I'll get your way yet!

Susan said...

The overshot looks beautiful and I love the colour variations you have there.

The Louet method of securing the unused shafts is so easy! My other countermarche has a securing system as well but it's not as friendly to set up. It's at the very top of the jacks and you are struggling to hook texsolv to them way above your head! I don't think you could even do it on my loom as it gives me grief. But each loom has its beefs and bouquets!

Love the ornament trees outside the front door. I too wish I was closer to stop in for tea with you!

Dorothy said...

I do enjoy seeing pictures of your beautiful weaving, it is expanding my horizons as (apart from rugs) I've not used different yarns in warp and weft yet.

bspinner said...

Love your overshot. I could never figure out a name draft I've liked.
Decorations look great!!